Testimony of Nancy Altman before the Subcommittee on Social Security of the House Ways and Means Committee, April 16, 2024
Chairman Ferguson, Ranking Member Larson, and Members of the Subcommittee:
You should repeal WEP /GPO as one of the many ways that you should expand Social Security. [NB: The Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset can reduce Social Security benefits for some people.]
Social Security is the nation’s most universal, efficient, secure, and fair source of retirement income. It is most working families’ largest source of life insurance. It is often their only disability insurance. Its one shortcoming is that its vital benefits are inadequately low even for those not subject to WEP/GPO.
Social Security benefits should be increased across the board, as the 2100 Act, the Strengthening Social Security Act, and the Social Security Expansion Act all do. In addition, Congress should repeal WEP/GPO and make the other targeted expansions that I explain in detail in my written statement and that many of you have championed. They include improvements for women, low-income workers, young people, people with disabilities, survivors, and others.
All of that is completely affordable, but there is a right way and a wrong way to cover that cost.
The right way is to require millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share. If they contributed just on their earned and unearned income in excess of $400,000; and they contributed at simply the same rate that minimum wage workers and their employers contribute to Social Security, that raises enough revenue to restore Social Security to balance, repeal WEP/GPO, and expand benefits in other ways, as well.
The absolute wrong way is to cut the very Social Security benefits that public servants are fighting for. The Republican Study Committee budget slashes Social Security by $1.5 trillion in just the first ten years, and by $73 billion in just the first year alone. Indeed, the RSC’s annual budgets will leave public servants, along with all other working families, substantially worse off — even if Congress repeals WEP/GPO.
In my written statement, I calculate the impact of just three of the RSC cuts. I take the example of a public employee who today gets a benefit of just $649. If WEP were repealed, the benefit would jump to $1,038. But, if those three RSC cuts were in effect, that $1,038 monthly benefit would be just $410 a month. That is $7,500 a year less. And it is nearly $3,000 a year less than the employee gets today, with WEP!
Instead of repeal, if you simply modify WEP/GPO, you should not do so in a way that results in some public employees worse off, as the Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act does. Once fully phased in, that bill would cut the benefits of millions of public servants whose benefits are not affected at all by current law. For those public employees affected by current law, one-third of them would get lower benefits under the new, modified WEP.
If Republicans are going to continue to advance these devastating cuts, they should at least have the courage of their convictions. Instead, Speaker Johnson and Budget Committee Chairman Arrington are pushing for the creation of a commission with essentially the power to enact these unpopular cuts behind closed doors.
This is a thinly veiled effort to avoid political accountability. President Biden accurately labeled the commission a “death panel” for Social Security. The Ways and Means Committee, not a closed-door commission, is the right forum for Social Security legislation.
Overwhelming majorities of your constituents — Republicans, independents, and Democrats –vehemently oppose all benefit cuts and strongly support expanding Social Security, paid for by the wealthy. You can act with confidence in the open – if you act in accordance with the will of the people. If you expand Social Security’s benefits, including repealing WEP-GPO, and you pay for it by requiring the uber-wealthy to pay their fair share, you will receive widespread praise and the gratitude of the nation.
Thank you.
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